


Objects in Orbit

by stardustedship



Category: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: AU, Angst, Fix-It, Hopeful Ending, M/M, identity crises and fire, obikin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 17:55:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13575876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustedship/pseuds/stardustedship
Summary: What if Obi-Wan had succeeded in pleading with Anakin on Mustafar?





	Objects in Orbit

As had always been the way of things, Obi-Wan sensed the change in Anakin's offense before the younger man himself. He'd felt the brief moment-- there, just there-- where Anakin's singleminded fury turned to a wavering uncertainty. It was gone in an instant like nothing had changed, but if Obi-Wan was going to destroy the person before him, he was going to make damn sure that it was entirely the thing Anakin had become. No part of him could kill any part of Anakin.

He had not needed a flight to Mustafar to ponder this. 

The fallen jedi before him heaved a vicious overhand blow, as though to compensate for his hesitation; Obi-Wan allowed the smallest tint of desperation to lend him the strength to throw Anakin's arm back hard enough that the two of them were, for a moment, out of reach of one another. He waited, focusing on keeping his mind clear and examining every inch of Anakin's body language and expression. He had come to kill this thing. If there was any part of Anakin left that was willing to help him, he would not let go of it.

Obi Wan reached for the heart of his friend, the deepest and most hidden of slivers of what made Anakin his own person, and he spoke to it. "I have failed you, Anakin."His voice betrayed his sorrow, an emotion frowned upon by the Jedi Order as an attachment. He let it. He had, he'd realized, become attached to Anakin when nobody was looking. It was very likely that this would be his only chance for anything resembling a goodbye, and nobody was looking now. "I have failed you."

Anakin's snarl did not waver, but neither did he leap into attack. A quick flash of memory in Obi-Wan's mind: the Nexu on Cholganna that had survived the massacre of its pride, wounded and staring down the two Jedi as they attempted to communicate their intentions to help. They had not succeeded. Had Anakin's arm not already been metal, he would've needed one afterward. Obi-Wan pushed the thought away.

Anakin's mask of hatred did not shift, but even in those unfamiliar yellow eyes, Obi-Wan saw something flicker. He felt the surge of hope coming and deflected it down a mental hallway to be dealt with later. 

"I should have known the Jedi were trying to take over," Anakin said over the din around them, and there was something in his voice that didn't belong. Cold fury, yes, but something more. Regret. Regret for what? What, in this moment, was different to this twisted version of Anakin that had not been present in the face of children who idiolized him? Of his wife, for whom he had flouted the rules of the very order he had sworn so much to protect and uphold? How had he let Palpatine twist his friend so deeply? 

"Anakin," Obi-Wan shouted, successfully managing to not choke on the name. He had to keep him talking. "Chancellor Palpatine is evil." Even as the words left his mouth, he felt wretched. He had tried to provide Anakin with his own moral compass to guide him, tied into the jedi order and its ways-- the only ways he had ever known, ways that self-perpetuated themselves as the standard of what was right and good. Palpatine had provided Anakin, a young boy who had never been given a real choice in his life, the illusory chance to make his own compass. In doing so, he had established himself as someone Anakin could trust-- all for the express purpose of setting up his goals and ideals as something noble and right and making Anakin think he'd chosen between two parties. Whatever their intentions, Obi-Wan and the Jedi order had worked together to create the unraveling and desperate young man standing before him. 

"From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" And there it was, the anguish in his eyes and his voice that his face was carefully arranged to conceal as he stood in defiance of the thing he'd been prophesized to be. Anger hid many things, but anger was a secondary response. Obi Wan reached deep inside everything he and Anakin had built together, every perfect memory of the two of them stretched on their backs on a grassy hill, every shared laugh, every fight that had impacted the both of them. Why had he never shown his care for Anakin in a way that he could understand? Why had he allowed Anakin to feel that he had simply transferred from one form of servitude to another? Obi-Wan had perpetuated that feeling in his attempts to follow the code. Anakin had been required to call him "master," because that was the way. How much he must have gritted his teeth for the Order, how long he must have waited to feel truly free, playing someone else's rules to become a master.

  
The galaxy spread before Obi-Wan suddenly, wild and uncertain and slightly tilted. The Jedi had caused this, and he had led Anakin as a representative of everything they stood for. Something cracked inside Obi-Wan. There was no going back from the realization that the flaw of singleminded indoctrination had caused this. So what was he going to do to fix it? Obi-Wan took all of it-- the pain and the joy and the sorrow and the love-- and pushed it through to Anakin. "Then you truly are lost!"

He saw Anakin physically jerk in surprise. Felt the hope rushing through him again, and this time he didn't stop it. He had kept his feelings carefully concealed from Anakin his entire life, lest they alter his course. There was no further harm they could do here. Now was the time for truth, for whoever Obi-Wan Kenobi was outside of the Order. 

In the light of his wavering lightsaber, Anakin's eyes almost looked blue again. The mask of fury was still there, but it was only that-- a mask. Obi Wan stared for a long and silent moment as the planet frothed and boiled around them, and then he did something he had never done as Anakin's Master. Obi-Wan dropped his gaze. Who was he to assume moral superiority in this moment? _Not a Jedi_ , a voice whispered sadly inside of him. He drew in the sadness, recognized it, and let it pass. And still Anakin did not move. Obi-Wan knew that if he wanted, he could very likely step forward and put an end to everything. He also knew that to do so would be to cut out his own heart. And yet.

"I cannot let you go," Obi-Wan said, and the words were ash in his mouth. How many ways was that statement true? He looked back up at Anakin, now, who had stiffened at Obi-Wan's words. "I can't," he repeated over the noise. How easy emotions came when you had to shout to be heard in the first place. How quick calm was to disappear entirely. "Not if your intentions are to serve under these ideals twisting your mind."

Anakin's head tilted, just slightly. "Which ones?" he shouted. Obi-Wan felt the words drill into his heart. Which ones, indeed? The lofty ideals of the Jedi had fractured apart in the fifteen seconds it had taken him to locate the part of himself and of Anakin that were bound together by something that transcended their personal ideologies. As Obi-Wan's sense of self quaked and crumbled, a rueful smile split his face. 

"You can't help me," Anakin said, but cracks were there in his defiance. What a pair of cataclysmic events they were. "I don't want your help." He lifted his chin and for just a moment, Obi-Wan saw the nine-year old boy he'd met a lifetime ago on a miserable, sand-swept hellhole of a planet. "I don't need help from Palpatine or the Jedi ever again."

Obi-Wan shut off his lightsaber. Every bit of his training screamed against it, but his instincts hummed with assurance. He drew the force around him, ignoring for now the way it surged up to meet him with near overwhelming presence, and constructed a kind of tunnel around them, a chamber to project his voice without shouting. 

"I was rather hoping," he said as the hot wind whipped their hair around their faces, "that I could try as Obi-Wan Kenobi."

******************************************

Padme's ship was gone by the time the two of them returned; Anakin's steps faltered at the sight of the empty space. Obi-Wan urged him forward. "She's fine," he said. "We've got to get you out of here before Palpatine comes looking for you." Anakin's fists curled, but he nodded and raced after Obi-Wan to the lowered deck. The two of them collapsed into the pilot and copilot chairs and began flipping switches and calibrating sensors and for a moment, nothing had changed. They were Anakin and Obi-Wan, a single unit on the run from a greater threat.

As Palpatine's ship blipped into existence on their screens and began its descent to Mustafar's surface, Obi-Wan felt the surge of hatred in the force surrounding them. He was startled to find that some of it, possibly, was his. Anakin eyed him with as neutral an expression as it was possible to accomplish with those feral yellow eyes. Things had, in fact, changed. Obi-Wan took a deep breath and gripped a lever. "Together," he said. Anakin nodded, and then they were gone.

**Author's Note:**

> The fic I sat down to write was the two of them in hiding after the events of what I've written here. I got distracted writing said events. There will likely be a part 2, which will contain the fic I came here to write.


End file.
